The 2012 IIHF World Championship was the 76th IIHF World Championship, an annual international hockey tournament. It took place between 4–20 May 2012 in Finland and Sweden. This tournament determined the countries’ seeding for the men’s Olympic Ice Hockey tournament in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics, and for all countries participating in the qualification program leading up to the Olympics.[1]

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At the IIHF congress in Moscow in 2007 four nations submitted bids to host the 2012 World Championship: Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The Hungarian and Czech bids were withdrawn before the vote, which was then contested by Finland and Sweden. Finland won with 64 votes to Sweden's 35.[5] Sweden later won the vote to host the 2013 World Championship. At the congress in Bern in 2009 it was announced that Finland and Sweden would instead co-host both the 2012 and 2013 tournaments.[6]

Group A preliminary round and quarterfinals were played in Hartwall Areena, Helsinki. Group B preliminary round and quarterfinals were played in Ericsson Globe, Stockholm. All semifinal and medal games were played at the Hartwall Areena.

For the first time since 2000, a new format was adopted in the IIHF World Hockey Championships. The preliminary round and qualification round were merged into one (two pools of eight teams), with the top four teams from each pool advancing to the quarterfinals.[7]

Each teams roster for the 2012 IIHF World Championship consisted of at least 15 skaters (forwards, and defencemen) and 2 goaltenders, and at most 22 skaters and 3 goaltenders.[8] All sixteen participating nations, through the confirmation of their respective national associations, had to submit a roster by the first IIHF directorate meeting.

This group saw the three favourites, Canada, the United States and Finland advance pretty easily. All three teams advanced a day before the group play was done. Canada lost just one game, their second game, against the Americans in overtime.[9] The Americans themselves needed to win their last game against Switzerland to capture the second place in the group ahead of Finland and did so with the result being 5–2.[10] For the final spot of advancing, Slovakia and France played in a "final", where France needed a win to advance to the quarterfinals. The game was close throughout, tied the whole way until it was 4–4, this is when Slovakia scored the final and decisive goal to win 5–4 and get to the fourth spot in the group.[11] France, Switzerland were eliminated alongside Belarus, with Kazakhstan finishing in the last spot and being relegated.[12] They ended the tournament with one point, by losing to the United States in overtime.[13]
Canada faced Slovakia, and the United States played against Finland in the quarterfinals.

Group S (Stockholm)

Russia went through the group undefeated by winning all seven games. Co-host Sweden captured the second place, after falling short to Russia.[14]Czech Republic rounded up the third place and advanced to the quarterfinals. Norway, Latvia and Germany all fought for the last spot in the next round but Germany was eliminated after failing miserably 4–12 to Norway.[15] Latvia lost to Denmark and was eliminated,[16] which meant that Norway advanced. Italy finished last and was relegated to Division I.[17]
In the quarterfinals, Russia took on Norway, while Sweden battled the Czech Republic.

The Slovak team was the underdog going against Team Canada who had lost just one game so far. But the game started with a surprising strong start by Slovakia, who scored twice in the first 10 minutes to get a 2–0 lead. Evander Kane was able to cut into the lead before going into the first break.[18] In the second period Canada scored twice and got the lead and Slovakia was down by one going into the last period. With just 6 and a half minutes to go Milan Bartovič tied the game before Michal Handzuš even took the lead with a bit over two minutes to go. Canada pulled the goalie but was not able to connect against and lost 3–4.[19] The crowd was stunned and the surprise perfect, Slovakia advanced to the semifinals while Canada was eliminated.[20]

Russia vs. Norway

The undefeated russian team added Alexander Semin and Alexander Ovechkin to their roster before the quarterfinals.
Ovechkin went right away and scored the equalizer after Per-Åge Skrøder gave Norway the lead. After Russia took the lead, Patrick Thoresen made it a tied game just 28 seconds after the second period started, with his 18th point of the tournament.[21] The game went into the last period tied, 2–2. Not even one minute into the third period, Alexei Emelin gave Russia the lead.[22] After Russia raised the lead to two, Ilya Nikulin finished Norway off by making it a 5–2 lead with just five minutes to go. Norway was outshot 45–21 and eliminated.[23]

United States vs. Finland

Co-Host Finland tried to advance against the US-team who they lost to in the preliminary round. The first period ended scoreless, before Jesse Joensuu broke the tie, just to be answered 21 seconds later by Kyle Palmieri. With the game going 1–1 into the last period, the United States took the lead with under two minutes played.[24]Mikko Koivu tied the game seven minutes before the end of the game. With everyone expecting a overtime, Jesse Joensuu struck again, just nine seconds before the end.[25] The US pulled the goalie but never had another chance and were eliminated.[26]

Sweden vs. Czech Republic

The last quarterfinals saw Co-host Sweden going up against the Czech team. The first period ended in a 2–1 lead for the Czech Republic after Sweden took the lead early on. Martin Erat scored and gave the Czechs a two-goal lead before Henrik Zetterberg cut into the lead 45 seconds before the end of the second period.[27]Jonathan Ericsson continued the Swedish way of climbing back by tying the game just 45 seconds into the last period. Both teams had their chance in the next few minutes, Sweden hit the post and the Czechs failed to score against Viktor Fasth.[28] 29 seconds before the end Michálek took the puck away from swedish defender and scored. Sweden pulled the goalie and had one last chance but it was missed and the Czech advanced to the semifinals.[29]

Seven minutes into the game, Janne Niskala gave Finland the lead. Two goals from Evgeni Malkin brought Russia back into the game going into the first intermission.[30] In the second period Alexander Ovechkin increased the lead to 3–1; a while later Malkin would increase Russia's lead to 4–1. Denis Kokarev then scored another goal and with Russia in control of the game, yet another after that.[31] Four minutes before the end of the game Mikael Granlund scored the last goal of the game, as it ended 6–2 in favour of Russia although they were out-shot 23 to 31. Malkin was the player of the game with scoring a hatrick to give him 18 points for the tournament. Russia advanced to the final to try to win their twenty-sixth title, while Finland will battle for bronze.[32]

Czech Republic vs. Slovakia

The Slovak team tried to continue their ride at this championship by advancing to the final even though the Czech team was the favorite before the game started. The game started slow, but Miroslav Šatan broke the tie 15 minutes into the game to give Slovakia the lead. Another 15 minutes in, this time the second period, Michael Frolík made it a 1–1 game going into in the last period.[33] The third period was not more than one minute old, when Šatan struck again with his second goal, despite Slovakia being shorthanded. Libor Hudáček then gave Slovakia a two-goal lead four minutes later. The Czech team had 15 minutes to turn the game around but did not create enough opportunities. They pulled their goaltender with two minutes to go, but Slovakia kept up their defense well enough not to concede another goal.[34] Slovakia finished off another upset and advanced to the final, while the Czech Republic plays in the bronze medal game. Slovakia had no penalties but was outshot by nine.[35]

The bronze medal game featured Finland and the Czech Republic. The Czechs took the lead in the first period before Finland tied the game at one, three minutes before the first break. Jiří Novotný and David Krejčí raised the lead to two goals, being 3–1 at the first intermission.[36] The second period went scoreless before the Finnish team got new hope when Jussi Jokinen scored a goal ten minutes before the end of the game. But they did not score again, and the Czech team captured the bronze medal and Finland ended the tournament in fourth place.[3]

The gold medal game featured Russia and Slovakia. Slovakia played in the World Championship final game for the first time since 2002, while Russia advanced to their fourth gold medal game in the last five years. Russia defeated Slovakia 6–2 to take home the gold medal from the tournament. The Russian team went through the tournament undefeated.[2]

The seeding in the preliminary round was based on the 2011 IIHF World Ranking, which ended at the conclusion of the 2011 IIHF World Championship. The teams were grouped accordingly by seeding (in parenthesis is the corresponding world ranking):[39]

The top four teams in each group moved to the quarterfinals where the group winner met the fourth place, and the group runner-up met the third place within the same group. The last placed team in each group was relegated to Division I, Group A.[40]